Once again, the 2016 Academy Award best acting nominations are all white — a repeat of 2015 despite widespread criticism expressed by the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. But while reading about the Academy Award nominations, my thoughts turned to the tragic image of the late Misty Upham, a Native American actress of the Blackfeet Nation who appeared during the 2015 Oscars telecast in the “In Memoriam” montage while Meryl Streep looked on.

Tucson-HSL Properties presented the 2nd Annual HSL Properties Tucson Jazz Festival throughout downtown Tucson from January 14-24, 2016. In its early infancy, the festival has already exceeded expectations. The host city is an idea destination for snowbirds (winter visitors), locals and jazz birds (jazz enthusiasts who travel near and far to festivals).

Let’s talk about the only thing that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences understands. That’s dollars and cents. African Americans spend far more dollars proportionately on Hollywood films than any other segment of the film-going public. According to a comprehensive BET research study, they make nearly 200 million trips to the movies yearly. That averages out to more than 13 movie trips for African Americans versus barely 11 for the general movie-going audience. They are more likely to make repeat visits to movies that they like. This adds up to more than $500 million in added spending. They go to the movies more often each month. The average is more than two times per month, or nearly 30 movies a year. And, contrary to the popular view, they don’t just go see “black themed” films that are heavy with black stars. In fact, more than 80 percent of the movies African Americans go see do not feature a black cast or storyline.

Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning composer Vân-Ánh Võ premieres her new musical epic this month in San Francisco, inspired by the experiences of the Vietnamese Boat People. Integrating traditional and new instruments, video, field recordings and interviews with survivors, The Odyssey–From Vietnam to America reflects the resilience of the human spirit and the price of freedom. The work was created in partnership with Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI). She spoke with New America Media editor Andrew Lam.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amended its regulations today to improve the programs serving the H-1B1, E-3 and CW-1 nonimmigrant classifications and the EB-1 immigrant classification, and remove unnecessary hurdles that place such workers at a disadvantage when compared to similarly situated workers in other visa classifications.

Amid the release of new data* on American small businesses revealing that that, in November 2015, the economic outlook among U.S. small business owners—down nearly 2 points year-over-year—has finally stabilized after a 6-month decline, there’s cause for entrepreneurs to be optimistic for the year ahead.

Washington, DC – Today the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM Bank) released its Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report highlighting its support of more than $17 billion in U.S. exports and an estimated 109,000 U.S. jobs. The Bank also announced it has transferred $431.6 million in deficit-reducing receipts to the U.S. Treasury’s General Fund for fiscal year 2015.

I agree with you that it’s a little ironic that we Sikhs are being mistaken for Muslims in the U.S. today, when the very idea behind our distinctive appearance was to distinguish us from Muslims and Hindus. I wish more people knew about the role of the Sikhs in the fight against the Mughal tyranny in 17th century India, and the sacrifices the Sikhs made to protect the common man’s right to practice their religion during Aurangzeb’s misguided attempts to convert the entire Mughal empire to Islam.

Del Toro and Lee announced the nominees in 11 categories at 5:30 a.m. PT, followed by Boone Isaacs and Krasinski for the remaining 13 categories at 5:38 a.m. PT, at the live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (Public Law 114-113), signed into law by President Obama on December 18, 2015, increases fees for certain H-1B and L-1 petitioners. These petitioners must submit an additional fee of $4,000 for certain H-1B petitions and $4,500 for certain L-1A and L-1B petitions postmarked on or after December 18, 2015.

Seven straight years of frothing-at-the-mouth Republicans. Haters pushing derail buttons on your presidency. The irritating reality that a good quarter of the population still believes you weren’t born here.

Now, in the wake of all that, you must give your last official speech before a shark-infested Congress openly hoping for your demise. What would you do?

You’d throw a left hook so hard that it slammed Bamas into the next sequel of Creed.

But you won’t get that from chronically cool President Barack Obama as he delivers his final State of the Union address.